Senior Foreign Ministry officials harshly criticized Israel's UN ambassador Gilad Erdan's decision to don a yellow star during a UN Security Council meeting on Monday.
Three officials who spoke with Haaretz called the act a "media gimmick" that harms Israel, adding that Erdan and his staff did not work in conjunction with the ministry's top brass and diverged from the messages Israel wanted to portray about the goals of the war with Hamas.
"Erdan thinks more about the Likud party primaries than about Israel's political and diplomatic efforts," one senior official told Haaretz. “We always attack other countries when they manipulate the memory of the Holocaust, and here comes the Israeli ambassador and does the same on the most central stage of world diplomacy.”
He went on to say that Erdan had been acting independently of the rest of the governmental apparatus since the beginning of the war. "The feeling is that there is a person there who does what he wants and is not a partner in our overall effort."
Another senior official in the ministry said that Erdan “acts on his own and we are very angry with him. These messages are completely contrary to our policy. He did not consult with anyone. He is deeply involved in a political campaign and is taking advantage of his position as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations to advance his personal interests.”
Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan also slammed Erdan's act, saying it "disgraces both Holocaust victims and Israel."
"The yellow star symbolizes the Jewish people's helplessness and the Jews being at the mercy of others. Today we have an independent state and a strong army. We are the masters of our fate. Today we shall wear a blue-white flag, not a yellow star."
Erdan slammed the Security Council on Monday for failing to condemn Hamas for its ruthless October 7 attack and reiterated Israel’s position that “those who call for an immediate ceasefire are ultimately asking to tie Israel’s hands and keep Hamas’ rule in Gaza.”
He accused the members of the council of being silent in the face of attacks on Jews, and announced that he and his team will continue to wear the yellow star "until we eliminate the Nazi Hamas and until the Security Council stops being silent and condemns the October 7 massacre." Erdan added that "in view of the silence of the UN, our enemies have gained courage. Antisemites all over the world are raising their heads."
In a speech littered with historical and current references to persecution of Jews over the centuries, Erdan donned a yellow star midway through his address, proclaiming that it is “a reminder that we swore to fight back to defend ourselves. Never Again is now,” he added.
Erdan had particularly harsh words for UN Secretary General António Guterres, whom he lambasted for “not publicly demand[ing] that the ISIS-Hamas terrorists allow the Red Cross to at the very least verify some sign of life of the hostages.”
“Israel’s operation in Gaza, is not a response to October 7th,” Erdan said. “It is an act of self-defense to ensure our future. Just as the Allies stood together to rid the world of an evil, today Israel stands with her allies to rid the world of an evil that threatens our existence.”
Erdan also accused Iran of responsibility not only for the Hamas attack, but of “aiding terrorists around the globe and working towards destroying every value our civilized world holds dear.”
“Despite the blatant genocidal Nazism of the Islamic Reich of Iran,” Erdan added, “the Secretary-General and UN officials are still meeting with Iranian officials without saying one word of condemnation for their support of genocide. The Secretary-General rolled out the red carpet for the Iranian Nazi Foreign Minister here in this very building last week, smiling and shaking his blood-soaked hand.”
In response to Erdan's move, Avi Dabush, a Sderot local who survived the October 7 slaughter, wrote: "What a disgrace. There is a cap. As a survivor who waited for the army for 8 hours in a failure that destroyed everything we knew and thought about the country, I refuse to participate in this discussion. We are not Holocaust survivors. We rose from this inferno and will rise again. The ability to see everything that occurs to us solely through the lens of the Holocaust is part of the issue, not the solution."
Last week, UN Secretary General António Guterres said at a UN Security Council special meeting on the war between Israel and Hamas that it is important to recognize the attacks by Hamas "did not happen in a vacuum," as "the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation."
"They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing," Guterres said.
Guterres added that "the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”